good morning! it's my turn for this week's papertrey ink design team tips post and i thought i'd share a technique for adding fun 3D elements with dies and stamps that are symmetrical or at least close to symmetrical. i love cards and tags with dimension and pop and this step up from foam tape is the perfect way to add a little extra something to your christmas tags.
i decided to use the tree and snowflake circle from the winter fox stamp set. while they aren't perfectly symmetrical, they are both very close and worked well for this technique. you need to cut and stamp three of each. you could use more or less depending on how full you want the 3D element to be, but i found that with the thick cardstock, three was a good number for these small images. you want to be able to fold them nicely and still see the stamped details when they're assembled.
next, each die cut needs to be scored down the middle. to do this i added a little dot adhesive to the back and lined them up on my paper cutter so that my score line is perfectly placed without the small die cuts moving around. it worked like a charm!
next, i folded each die cut on the score line to get ready for assembly. you can see that i stamped the trunk on only one of the trees. after using the other trunks to help line the dies up for scoring, i cut them off so that my tree only had one trunk in the middle for a cleaner look.
with that die cut in the middle, i lined up and attached half a tree to each half of the front one and pressed and folded everything into place securely. i followed the same procedure with the snowflake circle, making sure that the snowflakes were all facing the same direction.
when everything is lined up and pressed into place, you should be left with a flat surface on the back of each on which to adhere them to a tag or card.
i went with tags - i stamped an allover pattern on aqua mist to set the stage for the tree, layering it over an additional tag in tropical teal for writing to the recipient.
the end result is so festive - perfect for a pretty package or maybe around the neck of a bottle of wine to bring to the hosts of a party.
i assembled a similar but smaller layered tag for the snowflake circle in stamper's select white and sweet blush.
on both the snowflake circle and tree elements, i covered the slightly uneven edges with a bit of clear crystal glitter to hide the minor imperfections. i also added glitter to the snowflake images for even more shine on that one. bling is always a good thing!
and there you have it! aren't they fun? i need to poke through my collection a little more to see what else i have that will work for this. a group of coordinating tags will look so good under the tree! if any specific stamp and die combos come to mind right away please share in the comments - i want to 3D all the things!
thanks for stopping by!
:) lexi
